


Trailblazer

by Benjamin_Winter



Series: Young Hearts: Original, Romantic Erotica [2]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Alien Planet, Alien Sex, F/M, Gratuitous Smut, Informal, Oral Sex, POV First Person, Science Fiction, Smut, Tails, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 08:54:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8884744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benjamin_Winter/pseuds/Benjamin_Winter
Summary: A disgruntled exo-miner realizes that his life has hit a rut. He came to Persei-4 on a mining gig looking for excitement, but all he found upon arrival was a dull, dreary, dead-end job. Craving adventure, he becomes one with nature (more or less) when he meets a native. By the end of the day ... he’s a trailblazer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone who gives kudos has my heartfelt thanks. I do read all comments, so feel free to leave one.

_“Come work on Persei-4._ _Explore a new world. Be a trailblazer.”_  
  
          I should have known it was bullshit. I’m not exploring anything at the bottom of this mine. I’m just sweating my ass off, tearing chunks of yttrium-heavy titanite off the walls.  
  
          _Ramsey the Trailblazer …_ it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?  
  
          But I’m no fucking trailblazer. Not down here. I’m just another working stiff.  
  
          I know what you’re thinking. _“Why not just quit? You’re not a slave. If you hate it so much, just leave. Put in your notice, and quit.”_ Well, it’s not that simple. I signed a contract, and it might as well have been signed in my own blood. I’m here for the full ten months, plain and simple. That starship that brought us here? It’s not leaving the ground, not until the end of the year. I’m in this for the long haul.  
  
          I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but this is one of the worst. Okay, to be fair, I knew this was a mining job going in. Everyone here did. I guess … I guess I just thought it’d be _more_ , too.  
  
          But I’m done bitching. It’s the end of my shift, and I’m getting the hell out of here.  
  
          I make my way through the main cavern. The guys give me a nod as I pass them by on the scaffolds, and I give them all a nod back. We don’t bother trying to talk – the booming of the plasma picks drowns out everything else. _Pop-pop-pop,_ like gunshots, but more hollow and more ear-shattering. You can work with plasma all your life, but you’ll never get used to the sound. And damn is it loud. I can barely hear my own breath crackling through my respirator.  
  
          After ducking under a few breaches in the bedrock, I’m back at the lift, a massive piece of shining-chrome machinery that’s probably worth more than I am. The lift wobbles as I step onto it, enough to make me question the worn sticker on the railing that reads: _“6,000 KILOGRAMS.”_ I press my thumb into the little upwards-pointing arrow and brace myself as the hydraulics kick into gear with a wrenching whine. The lift shoots upwards, quick enough to buckle my knees and make my gut jump. A lesson you learn on your first day: don’t use the lift on a full stomach.  
  
          The lift brings me up to ground level in an instant, into a little room walled with plastic sheets, thick enough that you can’t see through. At the front wall stands a circular, mechanical door that protrudes outwards. I pull down the nearby release lever, prompting the door’s airtight seal to suck open, and step outside.  
  
          Spend long enough in that mine and it’s like a cold shock coming back topside. Massive, thick-trunked trees soar up hundreds of feet into the air, and the blue sky shines down only through the little cracks in the overhead foliage. The forest is a sea of green: flower-laden bushes and leafy ferns line the side of the path, and the grass is thick and lush beneath me. It’s a different world up here. Down there, in that mine, you get this overwhelming sense of dread and despair. Nothing but rocks, dust, and sweat. But up here? Everything feels _alive._  
  
          I pluck out my earplugs and put them in my pocket. I press down on the two buttons on each side of my respirator, and it detaches into my hand with a pressurized hiss. I close my eyes and draw a long, deep breath, taking in the scent of the forest.  
  
          Fuck. I should’ve been a botanist.  
  
          It’s a short trek back to camp, but I take my time, admiring the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest. The bright blues of the flowers, the grass crunching beneath my feet, the scent of honey hanging in the air. I’ve never been much of a _‘nature guy,’_ but this place … I don’t know. There’s something about it. I think, at some point in our lives, we all get this sense that we’re bigger than we are, we get caught up in things we think matter but really fucking don’t. I sure as hell have. But when you stand here, in this forest, on this planet, you realize how small you really are. You get humbled. It’s a good feeling. It’s a _real_ feeling.  
  
          You’d think I’d be a bit nervous walking alone out here, with just this plasma pick to protect me, but the only animals I’ve seen out here are harmless. Spiderfrogs, four-eyed forest mice, critters like that. And I still haven’t even gotten a glimpse of the local NHO’s, the Near-Human Organisms. Shit, what was their Latin name again? ‘ _Viridi-caudam’_ something. The guys just call them _‘greentails.’_ We were showed pictures of them in the seminar. Two legs, two arms, one head, two eyes. Standard humanoid traits. The green fur and the monkey tail, _that’s_ the crazy shit. But, outside of those photos, none of the guys have seen one. The greentails don’t come near the camp or the mine, and I don’t blame them. I don’t want to be here either.  
  
          ‘ _Amator!’_ That’s the last bit of the Latin. _Viridi-caudam amator._ No clue what _‘amator’_ means, though. Your guess is as good as mine.  
  
          A few minutes pass and, sadly, base camp comes into view, a vast, sprawling complex of off-white buildings, all stamped down in a clearing that was carved out of the woodland without any shit given, without the slightest concern for anything and everything that once called this spot their home.  
  
          Protocol says to drop the plasma picks off at Engineering right after a shift, but, see, the problem there is that it would postpone my afternoon nap. Not happening.  
  
          I make my way to Residential, a section of camp made up of these things called _‘cubbies’ –_ Mark II AvariCorp Cubbies. Sterile-white, one-floor flats that can fold into a fraction of their full size, making them cheap to ship from one planet to another. But even at full size, they leave a lot to be desired. Just two rooms and one storage closet, and even that’s making them sound bigger than they are. I guess I should probably just be thankful I don’t have a bunkmate … no, that’s bullshit. The Mark II is the cheapest cubby Avari makes. They just didn’t want to shell out a few extra bucks for our comfort. If it doesn’t make you noticeably more productive, it doesn’t get paid for. It’s all about the money. Always has been, always will be. If you thought the discovery of tachyons and faster-than-light travel would change that, well, I’ve got bad news for you.  
  
          _‘D11,’_ that’s my cubby. My _‘home away from home.’_ I throw open the door, keep it propped open with one leg, and heave the plasma pick inside. Just for good measure, I kneel by the pick and pop out the fusion cell, a still-warm cube that’s small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. I set the cell up on an empty shelf – a shelf that, were this anyone else’s cubby, would probably have pictures of friends and family. You know, it’s funny … looking at this cubby of mine, you’d probably think nobody lives here. And, I guess, in a way, you’d be right.  
  
          I slip off my headlamp and toss it and my respirator aside, but when I turn back to the door, I notice something I didn’t notice earlier. Flecks of dirt mark the floor, making trails from the door, through this room, and into my bedroom. None of that dirt was there when I left this morning. Something’s been in here, recently. I must’ve forgotten to close the damn door all the way shut, and now some fucking woodland critter made a mess out of this place. Lovely.  
  
          I step into my bedroom, and _fucking hell_ is it a disaster in here. Something a lot bigger than a forest mouse did this. The drawers of my dresser are all thrown open, and my clothes are strewn about the room. Looking at the mess, a sense of dread strikes when a thought comes to me. _My boxers._ I dash towards the dresser, fall on my knees, and rifle through the bottom drawer. They’re fucking gone. My lucky boxers are gone.  
  
          Yeah, I know, _“Lucky boxers?”_ But hear me out. It’s the real deal. Back on Earth, _every single time_ I went out on the town wearing those things, I got laid. Every single time, two years straight. No joke. That shit had _powers,_ man. And now they’re gone.  
  
          Or maybe not. I hear the storage closet’s door swing open in the other room, and a flurry of footsteps follow it. The thief is still here. I shoot up onto my feet and dash out of the room, only to find the closet and front door both swinging on their hinges. I’ve got to stay on their heels. I sprint outside, and look from side to side. Nobody. I look down at the dirt and see another fresh set of prints, leading from the door, off to the side, and down the thin alleyway between my cubby and the next one over. Standing at the alley now, I see the thief’s already out of view. Slippery bastard moves fast. The alley’s a tight fit, but I think if I just strafe … like this … and straighten my shoulders … like this … I can … yes, I’m doing it. I’ve never been more thankful for being a skinny fuck.  
  
          Out behind the cubbies now, I catch a glimpse of the thief in the corner of my eye, and see a fleeting image, of … green _. Green_. That wasn’t one of the guys. This isn’t some dumb prank. That was a native. A greentail.  
  
          And I’m going after it.  
  
          Now, again, I know what you’re thinking. _“Turn around. You’re on a foreign planet. You’re unarmed. Stay in your camp. There’s a thousand different ways you could die out there, most of which are very painful.”_ I realize all this, I do. But, honestly, this isn’t even about the boxers anymore.  
  
          Maybe it’s just the unending monotony of this job, or the monotony of my _life_ in general … but I can’t stop myself. I have to go after it. I’m not suicidal. I just … I want to look past the curtain. I want to do something, something crazy, something that’ll shock these dead nerves, start a beat in this cold heart. What kind of life is it where the only things you did were things you _knew_ you’d do?  
  
          Even if this’ll be the last thing I ever do … at least I’ll have done _something._  
  
          I’m dashing through the bush now, keeping my arms up and forward, jamming my eyes shut. I use my hands to ward off the thorns, giving my arms a dozen shallow, bloodless nicks in the process. _Fuck_ , this is thick. I start to think that this bush won’t ever end, that I’ll be swimming in these shrubs for the rest of my life, when suddenly it gives way and I stumble forward, falling on my hands and knees.  
  
          I push myself up, back onto my feet, and pluck out the little needle-sharp thorns from my shirt. Fuck that bush. I think I’ll take the long way home when I head back.  
  
          I’ve never been in this part of the forest before. There’s no path here. The forest floor is just an ocean of low-standing ferns, and the trees, damn, there’s hundreds of them. Everything just looks the same. I don’t even want to think about how easily I could get lost out here.  
  
          I hear a twig snap off to my side. I turn quickly, but I don’t see any movement. I trudge forward through the ferns, raising my feet high with every step, careful not to trip on any roots. Then, another sound, a rustling, just off to my left. I turn again, and, behind a tree, I catch a glimpse of a face just before it ducks back. I saw it. It _knows_ I saw it.  
  
          “Hello?” I call out, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible.  
  
          A moment passes. A long moment. Then, slowly, it peers out again – no, _she_ peers out. The full lips, the dimples in her furry cheeks, the sloped, button nose, it’s all very feminine, all very … _human_. But her eyes, those aren’t human, not by a long shot. They’re narrow and bright gold, with slit pupils that go razor-thin when the sun hits them. Tucked behind her pointed, soft-looking ears, I can see her mane of long, gently-blue hair. It’s a bit wiry and frizzy, but there’s not a spot of dirt in it. She’s well-groomed.  
  
          She meets my eyes and watches me for a long while, waiting for me to act. But I don’t act. I don’t do anything. I stand where I am, still as a statue, letting her assess the situation at her own pace. Eventually, she puts a hand to the tree just by her face, and gently eases away from it, bringing her whole body to view. She’s got a lean, athletic build to her, and stands a few inches shorter than me, with a flat stomach, toned legs, and a gap between her thighs. Her hair-mane is longer than I thought, too. Thick, unruly locks of blue hair fall far down her shoulders, down to the small of her back. A long, short-haired tail, covered in the same green fur as the rest of her, swishes around behind her. At her waist is a crude leather belt that carries a few pouches, a waterskin, and, _surprise surprise_ , my lucky boxers. But, aside from that belt, she’s as nude as the day as she was born. Her two breasts are perky and well-rounded, not too large, but stunning all the same, with two blue, pointed nipples poking out from beneath her green fur. At her crotch, a thick tuft of fur hides her labia from view.  
  
          Doing my best not to stare at her nudity, my eyes are drawn to the pair of boxers hanging over her belt. I raise my arm and point to them. “Those, uh … those are mine,” I mumble meekly.  
  
          Her eyes follow my finger down to her waist, to the boxers, and she tugs them out from her belt. For a moment I think she’s going to bring them to me, but instead she just raises them up to her nose and takes a deep whiff. Huh. She likes my scent.  
  
          She tucks my boxers back under her belt and starts towards me, slowly, keeping both of her eyes locked to mine. She wades through the woodland brush effortlessly, and a second later she’s standing before me, no more than a foot away. She tilts her head curiously and looks me over, top to bottom. She leans forward and puts her nose just inches from the underside of my chin, and I can feel her shallow breaths against my neck as she takes in my scent.  
  
          “Nice to meet you too,” I laugh awkwardly. “The name’s Ramsey.”  
  
          She ignores me. No surprise there.  
  
          “What about you?” I ask her as she puts a hand to my chin. “You got a name?”  
  
          She doesn’t answer. She’s too busy smelling and petting me, nuzzling my chin with her hand, gently raking her fingers over my scruffy stubble. She likes the feel of it. I _knew_ it would pay off not to shave.  
  
          If she doesn’t have a name, I’ll have to give her one, for both our sakes. She deserves me calling her something other than _‘sexy green-furred alien woman.’_ But where to start? Let’s use the Latin. “What about Viri _?_ ’” I ask. “What do you think of that?” Again, she doesn’t answer me. _‘Viri’_ it is.  
  
          I jolt in shock when Viri puts a hand to my crotch, getting a good feel of my bursting erection, leaving no mistake to her as to how hard I am. Did I forget to mention I was hard? Yeah, it’s kind of difficult _not_ to be. Viri peers up at me, her lips widening into a toothy smirk, baring her teeth. She’s got about twice as many fanged teeth as I do, and they look quite a bit sharper than mine. With her hand on my bulge, I can’t decide if that devilish grin of hers is unsettling or arousing. I’m going with both.  
  
          Viri breaks away from me and snatches one of the pouches from her belt. She reaches two fingers into it and takes out a pinch of what looks to be some kind of pink, fine powder. She throws back her head and pours the powder onto her tongue.  
  
          “What’s that? Is that, like, candy or—”  
  
          Viri grabs me and pulls me into her, putting her lips to mine, taking me into an open kiss. She pushes her tongue into my mouth, and right away, I notice the barbs on it. Hundreds of soft, short little needles on the flat of her blue tongue. Viri wrestles my tongue down with hers, lapping at it, battering it aggressively, until both our tongues are layered with that powder.  
  
          When she’s finished, she draws back, just as quick as she threw herself at me, and she studies me, looking for some reaction out of me. I smack my lips a bit as the taste of the powder sinks it. It’s overwhelmingly sweet, like some kind of powdered syrup. It dissolves on my tongue after just a few seconds, but the taste still holds. It wasn’t half bad. Viri’s one hell of a kisser too, and that’s got to be the first time I’ve had candy tongued into my mouth. Hopefully it won’t be the last.  
  
          An ice-cold shiver shoots up my back, tensing my shoulders. Then comes a gentle warmth, a wave of euphoria that has my eyes drooping, until another electric current rushing up my spine snaps them wide open.  
  
          Oh, fuck. That stuff wasn’t candy.  
  
          The colors are changing. The green of the ferns and grass shift to a bright pink, to a neon purple, and back to green again. The gold of Viri’s eyes shift to a rosy red, to a warm orange, and then back to gold. The wind was wisping the leaves of the trees one way, but now I could swear they’re moving the other. Now, I’ve been real fucked up before, don’t get me wrong, but this … this is something else. My breath is unsteady, the hairs of my neck are standing on end, the corners of my vision are blurring, and the world is spinning, and spinning, and spinning.  
  
          I’m on the ground. I don’t even remember falling. Viri’s grabbing my wrists, pulling me up by my arms. She puts me up on my feet, but they’re numb, and I start falling again. Viri catches me before I drop, and she raises me up again, leaning me against her shoulder. She’s a lot stronger than she looks. She keeps me upright and walks us through the woodland, in the opposite direction of camp. I don’t put much thought into where we’re going – not that I could if I wanted to. And, shit, as long as Viri and I are going there together, I don’t care where _‘there’_ is.  
  
          I slip my hand from her shoulder down to her tight ass, and give her cheeks a few good squeezes. Judging by the way her tail wraps gently around my groping arm, Viri doesn’t seem to mind.  
  
          We’re standing at the foot of an immensely thick tree now, at the base of a series of wooden planks driven into the trunk that form a spiral staircase. Viri ushers me up the steps one foot at a time, slow and easy, careful not to let me fall. A hundred steps later – or maybe a thousand, I’m not counting – we’ve ascended partway up to the top, and she takes me in through a crevice, a thin doorway, into a spacious hollow in the tree. Her home. It must’ve taken her years to carve this out. Or maybe her ancestors did it. I don’t fucking know. My mind feels like a swamp, with every thought lurching back and forth in a slogging crawl.  
  
          Viri eases me down on a thick bed leaves, down onto my back. She doesn’t waste any time. She grabs my shirt and pulls it off first, then, smartly, she unfastens my belt before then tugging down my pants. My dick flops free, standing hard and stiff like a flagpole. Viri’s quick to slip off her own belt and throw it aside, not that it made her any less nude to begin with. She gets down on her knees beside me, tail swishing happily behind her, and puts a soft, furry hand around the base of my cock. She wets her lips and shoots me a quick, lustful glare before leaning down. She stops just over the tip, and sighs a hot breath over my prick.  
  
          On cue, a thick, clear dollop of precum leaks from the slit of my cock, and Viri’s eyes light up at the sight of it. She laps it up with one long lick, brushing the soft barbs of her tongue along my crown, making me shiver and clench. She rears back and smacks her lips a few times, savoring my foreign taste. Then, she drools a long, thick strand of spit over my cock, and sinks back down. She pushes her puckered lips just past the head, suckling it tightly. She tickles the slit of my crown with her tongue, drawing a gasp from me as she tries to take my seed straight from the tap. Viri puts a tender hand to my balls and cradles them, kneading them gently, coaxing out a few more drops of pre that she slurps up happily. She’s bobbing her head down my whole length now, slobbering over my prick from base to tip.  
  
          With her kneeling at my side, her ass raised in the air, I’m getting the urge to repay her favor. I reach out to her bum, but I can’t reach far enough to get between her legs. I grab her thigh and tug on her a few times, trying to get her shift over to me so we can double the fun. Right away, she gets the message. She rotates a bit and shifts her back end over towards me, raising her left leg and lifting it to the other side of my head. As her thighs part over my face, the soft tuft of fur hiding her muff parts with them, revealing the blue, glistening lips of her pussy. Her feminine scent rolls over me, heady and strong, and I get even harder at the scent of it. I reach up to her bum and ease her down a bit _,_ just enough to sit her on my face.  
  
          A bead of her wetness falls onto my closed lips, and I don’t make the mistake of wasting another drop. I open my mouth and push my tongue into her tunnel, licking and massaging her walls as deep as I can manage. I lap at every inch of her pussy that I can, letting her fluids pour down my tongue. Knowing better than to ignore it, I draw back for a moment and circle my tongue around her clit, teasing it. Finally, I give the little blue buzzer a quick, wet lick, and Viri’s thighs tighten at that, with her tail standing high on-end. She doesn’t make a sound, but there’s no mistake that I’m hitting the right spots. In one smooth rotation, I alternate between pecking little kisses on her pussy, delving my tongue into her, and tasting her clit. Her juices flood my mouth, and I gulp it all down as it comes. If greentails go through heat, Viri’s in the thick of it.  
  
          She’s no slouch on her end, either. She pumps the base of my cock with her hand, and takes every inch above it into her mouth. She pushes her lips up and down my length, keeping an airtight seal on my cock, occasionally stopping to focus on my crown, to suckle it and worship it. Needing more of this pleasure she’s giving me, I buck my hips out of instinct, and Viri takes it masterfully, breathing through her nose as I thrust deep to the back of her throat. As she takes me to my base, she keeps my cock pressed to the flat of her tongue, grazing it with her soft barbs. She’s got me hurtling towards my peak, but I won’t go it alone.  
  
          I run my tongue over her pussy in long, deep licks, slathering her from top to bottom, capping off every tongue-stroke with a lap at her clit. Before long, her thighs lock around my head, spasming as she climaxes, and a swell of her fluid rushes into my mouth. At her end, a fire-hot pleasure bursts beneath the base of my cock, and I shoot out the biggest load I’ve ever had. Thick globs of white, salty cum spurt into Viri’s mouth, layering her tongue, and she’s got no choice but to gulp it down in a hurry. She keeps sucking me as I ride my high, nursing on my cockhead all the while, drawing more ropes of cum out of me. She’s eager to get as much of my treat to taste as she can.  
  
          Eventually, our orgasms die down, and our taps run dry. Viri’s thighs loosen around my head, and she lets my cock pop free of her mouth. She rises off of me, and I lean forward, my chest heaving as I gather my breath. You’d think I’d be exhausted right now, that I’d want nothing more than a good nap. But I’m not. I feel fucking insatiable. My cock’s still standing at attention, just as hard as before. When I look to Viri, I see her on all fours, arching her back and raising her rump high. She knew I’d want a second round. She’s wiggling her tight ass at me, enticing me to fuck her silly, her puffy blue pussy peeking out at me from between her cheeks. Meanwhile, my dick is still throbbing and needy, aching to be put back somewhere hot and wet.  
  
          I rise to my knees, stumbling for a moment, and scoot over to Viri, grabbing her wide, womanly hips as I inch myself closer. I grab my cock to guide it to its new hole, but Viri cocks her head, peers over her shoulder, and … and gives me this look I didn’t expect. She looks … nervous, almost. Timid. I’m about to stop myself, to see if she really wants this, when I feel her tail coil around my cock, pumping my shaft and keeping me pointed to her sex like a dripping, blue bullseye. Her eyes brighten, and her lips curl into a warm smile. That’s a clear go-ahead.  
  
          I push my crown through her tight lips, and slip my cock into her. She grips each inch snugger than the last, but she’s soaking wet, more than enough to let me push through until I’m balls-deep. A strange, pleasurable pull at my cock reminds me that I’m not inside a human. The walls of her twat roll like a wave over my member, squeezing me from base to tip in one slow, rhythmic motion. I don’t know if it’s a conscious effort of hers or some reflex, but, either way, it’s got me doubting how long I’ll last. Slowly, I pull out, until just my tip sits in her, before pushing myself back into her warmth. Thrusting doubles the friction. I put my hands on her hips and hold myself still – if I hadn’t just cum, I’d probably be blowing my load right now.  
  
          Viri doesn’t let up with the contractions, and when she notices I’m not moving, she starts thrusting backwards, slapping her rounded ass against my hips, taking my cock to the hilt with every backwards thrust. She wants me to fuck her, quick finish or not.  
  
          I reach around her and grab two handfuls of her swaying tits, sinking my fingers into her plush, furry breasts. With her tits firmly in hand, I start to crash my hips into her, well and truly pounding her. I rut Viri hard and fast, and my cock only thickens the more her cunt clenches down on me. More drops of precum leak out of my tip, adding just an extra bit of wetness to her tunnel. She grinds her butt against me as I plunge into her, gyrating her hips, adding more and more friction to snuggle my cock with. Her contracting pussy keeps pulling at me all the while, doing all she can to milk my load out of me, and I can’t hold back.  
  
          I move my hands from her tits to her shoulders and pull her towards me as I crash one last thrust into her, burying my cock to the hilt. I groan as the pleasure welling up in my gut explodes. My balls tighten and lurch as I cum, and my cock twitches as it starts spurting out its load. I shoot out thick white ropes of spunk, one after the other, painting her womb white. Her pussy keeps stroking me as I cum, squeezing and pulling, eager to suck out every little string of cum I’ve got left. I’ve emptied my balls before long, with no more cum to seed her with. My cock softens and slips out of her, and a river of white cum follows it, leaving her pussy a sloppy, spunky-white mess.  
  
          My shoulders slacken, and I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. I’m crashing. My knees buckle and give out beneath me, and I fall onto my side, into the bed of leaves. My brain’s powering down. A wave of exhaustion washes over me, pulling me into a deep sleep, and I let it take me.  
  
          The last thing I feel is Viri’s fur laying against me, soft and warm like a blanket.  
  
           …  
  
          The grumbling of my stomach wakes me. I rub my eyes for a bit, and, as the memory of the day comes back to me, I can hardly believe how great I feel. My head isn’t pounding, my hands aren’t shaking, there’s no hangover at all. In fact, I feel great. Refreshed. I’ve never had a better nap. I lean forward to stretch my arms and yawn, and a loose mess of leaves falls from my chest as I rise. To my right, Viri, who has her back to me, looks over her shoulder when she hears me. She smiles and turns, her jaw munching up and down. In her hands I see a wooden bowl, filled to the brim with foraged foods of the forest: fruits, nuts, mushrooms, all that good stuff. The sight of it only makes my stomach louder, growling at me and demanding me to feed it.  
  
          Viri scoots over to me and lays down atop me, with her head resting just beneath my chin. She snuggles in against me and wraps her tail around my arm, happy as can be. I’m about to reach for the bowl in her hands when she raises a berry up to my mouth, pinched between her fingers. It’s got a sweet, fresh scent to it. I catch it in my teeth, wait for Viri to take her hand away, and bite down. The berry explodes on my tongue in a burst of sweet, tangy juice. A few quick chews later and the berry’s gone, and I tap my finger on Viri’s flat tummy, hungry for more. She raises another berry to my mouth and I wolf it down as quick as the last. I could spend all day like this.  
  
          Call me crazy, but … I’m feeling something here. Yeah, I said it. I’m falling for her. I mean, how could I not? Viri got me high, took me into her home, gave me the best sex I’ve ever had, and now she’s fucking _feeding_ me. How could I _not_ be falling for her? She means something to me. Does that make me clingy?  
  
          Yeah, probably.  
  
          I just wish I knew what she thought of all this, of _us._ Am I just some forbidden fruit she wanted to taste? Is this a fling, am I some toy? Or am I a mate she’s chosen for the long-haul? Fuck. What I’d give just to be able to talk to her …  
  
          Sunlight is shining through the hollow’s entrance now, bleeding streaks of reddish orange over us. Reddish orange … _oh, shit._ Sunset. It’s getting close to curfew.  
  
          I push up on Viri’s shoulders, and she gets the message. She rises up off of me and watches me as I dart around the room, looking puzzled and a little frightened as I gather my clothes and throw them on in a hurry. When I fasten my belt with a click, I look up and see Viri holding something out to me, wanting me to take it. My lucky boxers.  
  
          I break into a smile. “No,” I laugh as I push the boxers back towards her. “Keep it.”  
  
          Viri smiles with me.  
  
          We head outside together, and I make my way down the steps – making damn sure not to look down – with Viri close behind. At the bottom of the tree, I stop and turn to her. She’s frowning now. She knows what’s happening.  
  
          Gently, I take her hand. “I have to go back,” I tell her, meeting her gaze. “I can’t stay here.” Viri studies me as I talk, her eyes bright and attentive. She doesn’t look confused. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but … no, I’m sure of it. She can understand me. I know she can. “I’ll come back,” I add with a smile. “Tomorrow, if I can.”  
  
          She smiles back at me, and takes me into a kiss. A different kiss from before. Sweet and gentle. _Loving_. When she breaks it, she takes our joined hand, kisses it, puts it to my chest, at my heart, and then puts it to herself, on her chest, at her heart. It’s … a goodbye. She’s saying goodbye.  
  
          I don’t want to. I really don’t want to … but after drawing a long breath, I turn away, and I leave. I can feel her eyes on me as I go.  
  
          You know, if any other guy here had the day I just did, they’d brag about it. They would. They’d shout it to the heavens, they’d make sure everyone knew. But I won’t. I won’t utter a fucking word. Viri’s a part of my life right now, and by keeping this quiet, I can make sure it stays that way.  
  
          It hits me then. What Viri and I did, we made _history._ I’m the first human to sleep with a greentail. Ever. In all time. I’ll _always_ have that. That’ll _always_ be me.  
  
          I’m a trailblazer.


End file.
